Do you sit over scrapes where you know bucks have been or where you've seen does?

We just started finding scrapes about a week or so ago on our property in Roxana but few have been refreshed since the last rain. Do you think the bucks have shifted off the scrapes and are cruising for the does now?

It's been a rough season for us, seeing very little over the past 5 weeks. We have a few micro plots of wheat, oats and rye. Added nitrogen 3 weeks ago which made it much greener and started growing more. However the deer are virtually avoiding it!!! We have an occasional browse area but the majority is completely untouched.

What are your thoughts?

Do the opposite of me and you will be just fine.

Same here. I don't know what's going on this year. I've tried everything so I must be wrong.

I prefer to hunt the woods and powerlines over green fields during the rut. I killed a nice 6 point that came straight to a scrape and put his nose in it earlier this season. I thaught the scrape was old and hadn't been used in a while but apparently not. I've been told a buck don't have to come directly to a scrape to check it, as long as he's down wind he can scent check it. I would put some tinks 69 in a scrape whether you thinks it an old scrape or not and sit and watch it.

I've hunted seemingly every type of "area" during rut, and have come to the conclusion that it's a basic roll of the dice when you know they're hot.

They can do the strangest and most random things when in that state of mind/physical shape... NEVER ceases to amaze me.

Seems like they'll be the farthest from where you think they would and where you think they wouldn't be...

Cameras are worth their weight in gold when it comes to this, but be warned: they are a blessing AND a haunting curse of daytime pics when you ain't there!!!

Good luck man, hope you get em!

My porch, its worked so for.

Harbin Ford in Scottsboro,thats where all the big deer end up this time of the year.....

I try to keep up with the does before the bucks start seeking and chasing and them when it gets hot I hunt the areas I've seen the does frequent the most. I used to try to run down the bucks but often you'll do more harm than good by invading their territory.

Find the does and the bucks will come.

Where the does are. Just go where the does are feeding. Hunt food plots in the evenings and anywhere holding browse during the day. I guess that's good advice when the bucks move into the tending stage.

Had a buck today following a doe while she browsed. I had my bow and although he wasn't a huge racked buck, he was mature and I was going to put an arrow through him but as he and the doe approached, I felt the wind on the back of my neck and well, he decided that chick wasn't worth dying for and he bolted. She didn't ask questions and followed him. The hunt was over... then the wind went back to blowing from the north like it was supposed to! My luck!

I always find where the does are bedding at, find the nearest ambush site where you can partially see in the thick cover, get well hidden and grunt him out of there. I grunted in 6 bucks last week in dallas county doing that. Make sure you are well hidden!

Funnel areas, a buck will roam we'll outside his normal range, some say up to ten miles during the rut! Normally they stay in a 1 square mile area. Deer normally use these area between food and bedding everyday, make sure the wind is right and be prepared to spend the day in a good area. I use a folding stool with good success.

I usually try hunting outside..... Maybe in the woods....

^^^^^

Not in Creola evidently if you want to see a rut......